More on Almeda

I found out that the distant cousin Almeda (whose photos I rescued from ebay in a previous entry) married and divorced without children. Her brother had two girls who lived into their 90's, the last one dying this past September. Maybe that's why the photos ended up on ebay. I would hate to think so since it mentioned her second cousins in her obituary and they have children. Anyway, I got an email about the family tree through rootsweb from Almeda's first cousin's (from another uncle) granddaughter on behalf of her father.

Maybe Almeda sent her to me so her photos could go home where they belong :)

-andrea

West Laurel Hill Cemetery in Philadelphia

I was working on a family tree for a cousin and I accidentaly stumbled across this link:

 West Laurel Hill Cemetery in Philadelphia's records are online!

http://www.webcemeteries.com/westlaurelhill/Name_Results.Asp

It only shows the burial location and a few have dates. This is a big deal because it costs $10/lookup by mail. I checked and my 1/2 great uncle and his wife are buried there and I know where now! He was 30 years older than my grandmother, so we didn't know what happened to him. I was there last year when I lead a private research trip for a client, so now I get to go back and check the flowers that I planted for other cousins.

-andrea

More ebay rescues!

I just rescued my 5th cousin 3x removed Almeda's photos of her, her mom, and her brother. Her mom wrote a note on the back of one of her pictures. Yay ebay! She was such a cute little kid!

geni's getting on my nerves again

I'm still playing around with geni.. (www.geni.com)

Why do they show in law relationships when blood relationships exist? It's so annoying. I don't care about my mom's 3rd cousin's ex husband's family's relationship to me.

Example:  Diane K. H____(K__) is your cousin's husband's fourth cousin's wife. In reality, she's my 6th cousin by blood. It should say that instead.

Also, why does it primarily show married names and not maiden names of females? It gets confusing when you have a lot of people in your tree..

-andrea

man, geni's annoying

I finished Volume D of the Cumberland County Orphans Court minutes! I believe that puts me finished through 1862.

I held 2 chats at www.southjerseydeadpeople.info

I'm finishing up my presentation on a certain aspect of the probate process for a genealogy event that's coming up soon (email me for details if you are interested)

I've been using geni with my friend Steve. There's no way I could enter my tree on geni because their limit's too small for my 105k people. However, I've been helping him out and adding some people to my tree. I find geni annoying because it's so slow and inefficient for my brain's data processing. When you have 105k people, you type fast. I gave up on Hannah Stretch and just sent him a PDF with her 3 husbands and children for him to enter. I could not find the 'add a husband' button.

Steve and I have also been playing the "we have to be related somehow" game. So far we might be the only two people not related with Salem/Cumberland county ancestors. I just need to find out one of my 4th great gmom's parents to see if Blackwood was her maiden name.. and then we might be related. Just to let you know, Cumberland County Clerk of 1869, "wife of Thomas Bennett" is not an acceptable entry for parents' names!

-andrea

Cumberland County Ghost Stories

There's been a bit to do in the Bridgeton Newsregarding ghost stories. The Cumberland County Historical Society is putting on a ghost story walk. One resident wrote in that he had only heard of one story after living there his entire life.

Today's BEN Column said:

"I can only speak for me. I don't believe in ghosts! That said, two faithful volunteers, Bob Francois and Wright Horne have agreed to lead our seasonal walk around Greenwich on Friday evening at 7 p.m. and have the $5 donation go to the mission of the Historical Society.

"Bob Francois is very good at giving the historical tour up the street and Wright is the ultimate storyteller. The evening will be educational and entertaining and with an occasional surprise I would not bring my young grandchildren.

"As to ghost stories, much has been written, but not documented.

"George Loper wrote many stories about the hauntings in Greenwich and four of them are retold on the back of the Bait Box menu.

"Stories about other world events have always traveled around the village.

"I think, in the flavor of the season, a walk in the dark of night might be someone's cup of tea.

- Joan McAllister

director
Cumberland County Historical Society
P.O. Box 16
Greenwich, NJ 08323
Phone: 455-4055
www.cchistsoc.org

Well, George G. Loper III is a distant cousin of mine. The reason that he has encountered so many ghost stories is that our ancestors are haunting him because he has published inaccurate and undocumented info about our family. It's really sad when I come across one of his articles.

-andrea

Recycling irregular tombstones

Workers Find Walkway Made From Grave Markers

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,440321,00.html

Memes

I've noticed there's a '10 things' meme going around the genealogical blogger community. I've been tagged, but I don't do memes. Do my readers really want to know 10 things I was doing 10 years ago and 5 things on my to do list today? I don't even want to know what I was doing 10 years ago (something about classes...).

My to do list today, as everyday: Find Dead People.

-andrea

Sleesman Family

While still reading through the Orphans Court Minutes (I'm up to 1847!), I came across Peter Sleesman's entry. One of my cousins was mentioned as an heir, so I thought it odd since I knew Peter had a daughter who lived past 1870 (but she lived in Cincinatti and then Indiana).

So I googled and found this post. I'm reposting it here since the email address is no longer valid and maybe you, Carol Stevens, formerly timsteve@aol.com, will find this post in google one day and it will help you. (and you will hire me for more research)

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http://home.mchsi.com/~gennut68/CapeMay/capemayq2001.html

SLEESMAN/SCHLESSMAN

Christopher SLEESMAN/SCHLESSMAN died intestate Cape May NJ in 1776. He had arrived in America 1751 and married 1756 in Philadelphia, wife was Catherine ARS, who re-married a Michael BOWERS in Cumberland Co NJ. I am looking for info about any issue of the SLEESMAN-ARS marriage. No info was in Orphan's Court that I am aware of. I have seen name as SLIZMAN/SLEASMAN/SLEAZMAN/SLEAMAN/SLEEMAN as well as the above. Thanks! 17 Jan 2001, Carol Stevens, timsteve@aol.com

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I know where Catherine is buried (next to her son Peter and his wife) and.... that.. yes.. there is info in the Orphans Court, just not in Cape May. They're trickly little suckers moving back and forth across county lines.

I found your dead people.

-andrea

Swimming in Comptons

I've been going thought the hundreds of pages of Orphans Court Minutes for Cumberland County, NJ. I'm around page 300 of 800 of Volume C (1842!). I've spent about an hour trying to place the 12 children of David Compton with the correct mother (3 options to choose from!). Now I have the 3rd wife living in Philly in 1842..

-andrea